Trust in Divine Providence.
1 GREAT Lord of earth, and seas, and skies!
Thy wealth the needy world supplies;
And safe beneath thy guardian arm,
We live secured from every harm.
2 To thee perpetual thanks we owe
For all our comforts here below;
Our daily bread thy bounty gives,
And every rising want relieves.
3 On thee, O God! would we depend,
The rich, the sure, the faithful Friend;
Our portion may thy wisdom choose,
Nor let our hearts that choice refuse.
4 And should thy measures seem severe,
Thy just rebukes we'll calmly bear;
Without complaint to thee submit,
The unerring Judge of what is fit.
Divine Mercy moderating Affliction. Isa. xxvii. 8.
1 GREAT Ruler of all nature's frame!
We own thy power divine;
We hear thy breath in every storm ;
For all the winds are thine.
2 Wide as they sweep their sounding way,
They work thy sovereign will;
And awed by thy majestic voice,
Confusion shall be still...
3 Thy mercy tempers every blast
To those who seek thy face;
And mingles with the tempest's roar,
The whispers of thy grace.
4 Those gentle whispers let us hear,
Till all the tumult cease,
And heavenly hopes and prospects rise
To sooth our souls to peace.
God the Author of our Comforts, our Deliverances, and our
Hopes. Ps. cxvi. 8, 9.
1 GREAT Source of life! our souls confess
The various riches of thy grace ;
Crowned with thy mercy, we rejoice,
And in thy praise exalt our voice.
2 By thee the arch of heaven was spread;
By thee were earth's foundations laid;
And all the scenes of man's abode
Proclaim a wise and gracious God.
3 Thy quickening hand restores our breath,
When trembling on the verge of death;
Gently it wipes away our tears,
And lengthens life to future years.
4 Our lives are sacred to the Lord;
Kindled by him, by him restored;
And while our days renew their race,
May sin no more our lives disgrace.
5 So, when by him our souls are led
Through unknown regions of the dead,
With hope triumphant shall they move
To scenes of nobler life above.
1 HAIL, love divine! joys ever new,
While thy kind dictates we pursue,
Our souls delighted share;
Too high for sordid minds to know,
Who on themselves alone bestow
Their wishes and their care.
2 By thee inspired, the generous breast,
In blessing others only blessed,
With kindness large and free,
Delights the widow's tears to stay,
To teach the blind their smoothest way,
And aid the feeble knee.
3 O God! with sympathetic care,
In others joys and griefs to share,
Do thou our hearts incline;
Each low, each selfish wish control,
Warm with benevolence the soul,
And make us wholly thine.
The Prospect of the Christian.
1 HAPPY the man whose wishes climb
To mansions in the skies!
He looks on all the joys of time
With undesiring eyes.
2 He knows that all these glittering things
Must yield to sure decay;
And sees on time's extended wings
How swift they flee away.
3 To things unseen by mortal eyes,
A beam of sacred light
Directs his view, his prospects rise,
All permanent and bright.
4 His hopes, still fixed on joys to come, Those blissful scenes on high,
Shall flourish in immortal bloom
When time and nature die.
1 HAPPY the meek, whose gentle breast,
Clear as the summer's evening ray,
Calm as the regions of the blessed,
Enjoys on earth celestial day.
2 His heart no broken friendships sting,
No storms his peaceful tent invade;
He rests beneath the Almighty's wing,
Hostile to none, of none afraid.
3 Spirit of grace! all meek and mild,
Inspire our breasts, our souls possess ;
Repel each passion rude and wild,
And bless us, as we aim to bless.
The Beatitudes. Mat. v. 3—12.
1 HAPPY the unrepining poor;
For them the heavenly rest is sure,
Whose patient minds, in every ill,
Submissive meet their Maker's will.
2 Happy the contrite, who lament
Their wasted hours in sin mispent ;
Reclaimed from sin, they shall obtain
Eternal joys for transient pain.
3 Happy the meek, by wisdom taught
To check each proud, resentful thought;
For them earth spreads the feast of life,
Unmixed with bitterness or strife.
4 Happy the souls that grow in grace,
Hunger and thirst for righteousness;
For them a full and rich supply
Shall be prepared in worlds on high.
5 Happy the men who mercy show
To all that need, or friend or foe;
To them like mercy shall be shown,
When God's just sentence all shall own.
6 Happy the pure in heart; for they
Still holding on in virtue's way,
When faith and hope are changed to sight,
Shall see their God in cloudless light.
7 Happy the men of peaceful life,
Who win to peace the sons of strife;
They shall be called the sons of God,
The heirs of his serene abode.
8 And happy those who take the cross,
For truth encounter pain and loss,
And suffer shame for Christ, their Lord;
For great in heaven is their reward!
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